Short for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network by AbbreviationFinder.org, ESPN is a company of television transmission by satellite, cable, distribution of information via web among other means founded in 1979 by Scott and Bill Rasmussen that is mainly dedicated to sports information. It has a main program called SportCenter that has been broadcast uninterrupted since its first airing, which adds up to around 30,000 episodes. Its current owner is the American news network ABC, jointly owned by the Walt Disney company and Hearst Corporation., dividing the profits by 80 and 20 percent respectively.
Magnitude
ESPN is capable of broadcasting in the main official languages and it is possible to be seen on all continents, focusing its work on America and Europe, as well as covering the main sporting events worldwide, such as the Soccer World Cup, the Major Leagues. baseball in the United States, the European Cup of UEFA, the America Cup, the Copa Libertadores, Olympics and world championships of different disciplines among other tournaments. Logically, to cover such a wide range of users, it is distributed through “sister” channels ESPN2, ESPN3.com, ESPNU, ESPN America HD, ESPN 3D, ESPN Brazil, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPN HD, ESPNews, ESPN Plus, ESPN on ABC, ESPN (UK), Longhorn Network, TSN (Canada) and SBS ESPN (Korea), ESPN Latin America.
Main transmission rights
NFL (American Football)
- 1987 – 1989 (Sunday Night; cable exclusively and only the second half of the season)
- 1990 – 1997 (Sunday Night; only the second half of the season (the first was covered by TNT))
- 1998 – 2005 (Sunday Night; cable exclusively full seasons)
- 1988 – 1994, 2003 – 2005, 2010 (Pro Bowl (American football stars game), with rights acquired from ABC network, excluding 2010 which were acquired from CBS network)
- 2006–2013 (Monday Night Football)
FIFA
- World Cup: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014
- U17 World Cup: 2007
- U-20 World Cup: 2007
- Women’s World Cup: 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011
- U20 Women’s World Cup: 2008, 2010
- Scottish Premier League
MLB
- 1990 – 2013
MLS
- 1996 – 2014
NBA
- 1982 – 1984
- 2002 – 2016
NASCAR
- 1981 – 2000 (Contracts with individual careers)
- 2001 – 2002 (NASCAR contract, Truck series only)
- 2007 – 2014 (Contract with NASCAR)
ESPN Family
TV
- ESPN (since 1979)
- ESPN Latin America (since 1989)
- ESPN International (since 1989)
- ESPN2 (since 1993)
- ESPN Australia (since 1995)
- ESPN Brazil (since 1995)
- ESPN Star Sports (since 1995)
- ESPNews (since 1996)
- ESPN Classic (since 1997)
- ESPN PPV (from 1999, 1999 – 2001 from original ESPN Extra)
- ESPN Classic (Canada) (since 2001)
- ESPN America (since 2002)
- ESPNHD (since 2003)
- ESPN Deportes (since 2004)
- ESPNU (since 2005)
- ESPN2HD (since 2005)
- ESPN on ABC (since 2006, replacing ABC Sports)
- ESPNews HD (since 2008)
- ESPN (UK) (since 2009)
- ESPN 3D (since June 2010)
- ESPN Goal Line (since September 2010)
- ESPN Plus (2011)
- TSN (Canada) (since 1984, ESPN owns 20%)
- RDS (since 1989, ESPN owns 20%)
- Longhorn Network (2011)
Internet
ESPN Motion (since 2003)
- http://www.ESPN3.com (since 2005), was ESPN360.com from 2005–2010
- http://www.ESPN.com
- http://www.espnW.com, sports coverage from the female point of view.
- http://www.ESPN.mobi
- http://www.ESPNdeportes.com
- http://www.ESPN.com in Portuguese
- http://www.Soccernet.com
- http://www.Cricinfo.com
- http://www.ESPNScrum.com
- http://www.EXPN.com
- http://www.SportsCenter.com
- http://www.ESPNChicago.com
- http://www.ESPNAmerica.com
- http://www.ESPNBoston.com
- http://www.ESPNDallas.com
- http://www.ESPNLosAngeles.com
- http://www.ESPNNewYork.com
- http://www.ESPNF1.com
Radio
- ESPN Radio (since 1992)
- ESPN Deportes Radio (since 2005)
- ESPN Xtra (since 2008)
- Rádio Eldorado ESPN (2007–2011)
- Rádio Estadão ESPN (since 2011)
- KESN (FM 3 for Dallas and Fort Worth)
- KSPN (AM 710, Los Angeles)
- WEAE (AM 1250, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
- WEPN (AM 1050, New York City)
- WMVP (AM 1000, Chicago)
ESPN in slang
Due to its large audience, ESPN has been included in many film and television series scripts such is the case in which several announcers are part of the same material as in Dodgeball and A True Underdog Story, or the reference to the old motto of the company “If it’s almost a sport, you’ll find it here.” In the film The Waterboy the character Bobby Boucher (Adam Sandler) gets all their achievements from various fictional episodes of SportCenter following college football. Also Will Ferrel starring as Ron Burgundy in ” El Reportero “It alludes to the fact that a sports channel broadcasting 24 hours a day would not become popular, the film was initially conceived in celebration of ESPN’s 25th anniversary and was later included as an extra on commercial DVD.
Electronic Arts, powerful company in the creation of sports video games in the 1990s used to have a network copycat sports logo on their sports games called EASN (Electronic Arts Sports Network), but soon switched to EA Sports due to ESPN asking to stop using it.
